Stiles woke up when Derek leaped over them, fully wolfed out.
"Wha...?" They asked, still mostly asleep but then they heard the screaming. Something crashed to the ground or into a wall followed by a cry.
"Erica!" Laura screamed.
Stiles scrambled out of bed to follow Derek.
When they entered the other bedroom, Stiles stumbled over Boyd. Literally.
"Shit." Stiles went with gravity and fell to their knees next to Boyd.
Laura and Derek were in the corner. With the bed blocking the sight it was hard to tell what was going on but they were holding down Erica. Even shifted it took all their strength to keep Erica down. Erica snapped her teeth at Laura and Derek. The noises she was making were not human at all.
"Erica!" Laura yelled at her. "Snap out of it! Dammit!"
Stiles only spared a second to take in the scene but then their focus was on Boyd. He was lying on his back, both hands pressed to his abdomen, and he was looking at Stiles with big eyes. There was blood coming out between his hands and the puddle under him was growing rapidly.
"Shit, shit, shit." Stiles put their hands on top of Boyd's to add more pressure but there wasn't much they could do.
"I need some help here!" Stiles yelled but the others were still fighting Erica.
"It's going to be okay," they tried to reassure Boyd. "We're going to get you to a hospital any second now."
"Don't think I have that long." Boyd grimaced with the pain. "Erica? Is she okay?" He turned his head but from this angle, there wasn't much to see.
"Laura!" Stiles yelled. "We need you here!"
Stiles was not a doctor but they could tell that Boyd was right, there was no way they could get him to a hospital in time. But there might be another way.
Laura threw a glance at them and her eyes went wide. She probably only now realized that Boyd was seriously injured. The red in her eyes deepened and when she opened her mouth it was in an animalistic roar.
It wasn't even directed at them but on instinct, Stiles cowered before their alpha.
"Erica!" Laura yelled.
The thrashing stopped. For a second there was an earsplitting silence.
"Stay with her," Laura growled at Derek before she hurried over to check on Boyd.
"How bad is it?" She asked but just one look told her enough. Boyd was barely conscious and the puddle of blood had reached Stiles' knees. They felt warm wetness soaking their sweatpants.
"Bad enough for an emergency bite," Stiles said. They were still pressing down on the wound but Boyd's hands under theirs had gone lax. Stiles wasn't even sure if he was still breathing.
"Boyd?" Laura took his head in both hands. Claws dug into his skin but Stiles doubted that he even knew that Laura was there. "Okay, okay."
Her eyes flashed red again. With a growl deep in her throat, she leaned forward, fangs hovering over Boyd's exposed neck. She glanced over to Stiles, maybe asking for permission, but then something in her expression changed. With determination, she turned back to the lifeless man under her.
Without another second of hesitation, Laura sank her teeth into Boyd's neck.
"Derek?" Behind them, Erica seemed to come around.
Derek had kept her down, just in case Stiles guessed, but now he let go of her and allowed her to sit up. There was blood on her hands and her clothes were splattered with blood as well.
"Boyd?" She scrambled to all fours. "Boyd!"
Stiles hurried to get out of her way when she rushed to Boyd's side.
"What the hell happened?" Stiles retreated even farther to give Laura and Erica some space to take care of Boyd. Like with Erica earlier Laura had bitten down on Boyd's neck for long seconds but now she was sitting at his side, holding his hand. Black lines were crawling up her forearm.
"She lost control." Derek crawled over to them and sat down with his back to the bed, arms resting on his knees. He had a gash on his cheek and his forearms were scratched up but he was already healing. Mostly he looked tired.
Stiles mimicked his position. Their hands dangling between their knees were coated with Boyd's blood.
"She looks fine now," Stiles observed. Erica had taken over their place at Boyd's side, hands pressed to the wound. It looked as if the bleeding had stopped but Stiles wasn't sure if that was a good sign. If his heart was not beating any longer or if he just didn't have blood left to lose …
"She's right here," Erica answered through gritted teeth but there was no heat behind it. Her focus was on Boyd. Stiles didn't strain their ears to catch what silly nonsense she was whispering to him, though.
For long minutes they just watched the two women working on Boyd. Not that there was much they could do. Erica was pleading for Boyd to not die and she constantly repeated how sorry she was.
"It's not your fault," Laura tried to tell her but Stiles doubted that Erica even heard her.
Suddenly there was that faint feeling in their head again. Even weaker than with Erica but Stiles was pretty sure that it was more than just wishful thinking.
"Is that …?" They asked Derek while they gestured at their head.
"The bite." Derek nodded. "It's trying to take hold."
Stiles waited for another minute but that feeling in their mind didn't change. At least it looked as if Boyd was not actively dying any longer.
"I'm going to make some coffee," Stiles decided and used Derek's shoulder to stand up. "Looks like it's going to be along night."
"I'm coming with you."
Derek cupped Laura's neck in passing and she leaned into the touch for a moment but then he followed Stiles out of the room.
"We should wash off the blood first." Stiles looked at their bloody hands. Derek looked worse, though. They weren't even sure how much of the blood on Derek was his and how much was Boyd's. Or maybe Laura's or Erica's. By now every gash on the werewolf had healed but Derek was covered in blood and his clothes were torn.
"Man, she took a number on you," Stiles said under their breath and hoped that Erica didn't catch it.
Derek looked at his hands and t-shirt as if he only now realized that Erica had slashed him up.
"You okay?" Stiles asked.
"I'm fine." Derek washed a hand down his face which seemed to remind him that he needed to wash up. "It's just …" He made a helpless gesture.
"Yeah." Stiles glanced back to where they could hear hushed voices behind the closed door. Laura had said that this could happen. It was the reason she had spent the night in the other bedroom. It was her fucking job to keep the freshly bitten werewolf under control. If Boyd died it was on her.
They washed off the blood, put on fresh clothes, and then Stiles went to make coffee. They were in dire need of some caffeine.
Derek needed a bit longer to clean up but by the time he joined them, nothing had changed. There was still that faint tugging in Stiles' mind but they could tell that Boyd was not pack yet. But he was alive so there was that.
Almost an hour later, it was past two in the morning by now, Laura came downstairs. The splatters of blood stood in stark contrast to her pale face and she was shaking.
"How is he?" Stiles offered her a cup of coffee which she had to hold with both hands to not spill it. And to let the warmth seep into her palms, they guessed.
"Stable," she said, her eyes distant. "But I think his chances are good."
"C'mere." Derek gently took her by the shoulders and guided her over to the nearest chair. "It's going to be okay. With Erica becoming a werewolf he would have joined the pack tomorrow anyway. Now he's doing it as a werewolf, that's all."
Stiles almost snorted. That was far from being all. They didn't want to know how guilty Erica felt.
And Laura. One look at her and Stiles could tell that she knew that she was the one who had fucked up.
"What the hell happened?" Stiles asked. They had a pretty good idea of what had happened and Derek had told them some things, it had been a long hour, but Derek hadn't been there from the start.
"I fell asleep," Laura admitted. "I thought that she was fine. I was wrong."
It basically was as Stiles had thought. All three of them had all fallen asleep and Erica had woken up kicking. Wolfed out she'd lashed out at everybody around her meaning Boyd and Laura. It had taken two werewolves to hold her down, Boyd never stood a chance. Stiles pictured Erica throwing him across the room like a rag doll.
"How could I ever think that this was a good idea?" Laura asked into her cup of cooling coffee. She was holding it more than she was drinking it. Not that she needed anything to keep her awake, Stiles doubted that she would find sleep any time soon. A part of them thought "good". It was mean, they knew it but fact was that Laura was the alpha, it was her responsibility to keep them safe. It had been her job to keep an eye Erica.
"Without this, Erica would have died soon," Derek reminded her. "You said it yourself, Boyd is stable and his chances are good. You'll see, everything will be fine in the morning."
Stiles hoped so but they couldn't help but wonder what would happen if Boyd died. It would be a clusterfuck.
"I should check on them." Laura took her cup with lukewarm coffee and a fresh one for Erica and went upstairs again.
"I hate waiting," Stiles muttered but there was not much else they could do.
The bite took hold around four in the morning. By then Stiles was nodding off at the kitchen table but they were too wired and dosed up on coffee to go to sleep. They shot awake when something in their mind shifted. Like with the others they couldn't make out individuals but there was a new presence now firmly embedded in the pack part of their brain.
"Finally." Stiles rubbed their face with both hands to become more alert. Across from them, Derek nodded. He looked tired but the relief was clear on his face.
"I'm going to start with breakfast." Stiles got up. They needed something to do and four in the morning was a reasonable time for breakfast, right?
While they needed to busy their hands, Derek needed to see his pack. It was Stiles' pack as well but they were not a werewolf, they had different needs.
Laura had stocked the fridge with a hungry pack of werewolves in mind so there was enough food for Stiles' urge to cook. Fried eggs, bacon, sausages, and toast dripping with butter. Greasy and hearty and tons of it.
Erica was the first who followed her nose to the kitchen. Stiles had to smack her hand with the spatula to keep her from snagging a sausage right out of the pan.
"It smells so good." She moaned. "Why does it smell so good?"
"Because you have the nose of a werewolf now," Laura answered. She and Derek had Boyd in the middle. He was mostly walking on his own but it looked like he wasn't done healing yet. Not that Stiles had experience with that but Derek had told them that werewolves could heal from almost anything. But they still needed time.
"Sit down, I have more than enough." Stiles directed them with the spatula over to the table.
"You better, I've never been so hungry in my life," Boyd muttered.
"Same here, being a werewolf makes you hungry," Erica said but took the hint and set down.
"Becoming a werewolf makes you hungry," Laura corrected. "And recovering from something serious like an injury or a tumor in your brain." She helped Boyd to sit down as well.
While they kept an eye on the eggs in the pan, Stiles tried to read the others. They didn't have the nose of a werewolf to smell emotions but it was obvious that everybody tried to act normal but under the surface, they were all freaking out.